Kuemper On Shaky Capitals Debut: ‘Not Happy With The Result’

WASHINGTON — Looking back at his Washington Capitals debut, Darcy Kuemper said that things didn’t go exactly the way he envisioned.

As his former club was preparing to raise its Stanley Cup banner, Kuemper saw his share of struggles in his first official game in D.C., surrendering four goals on 30 shots (.866 save percentage) in a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.

The 32-year-old got off to a rocky start in the game that saw him surrender quite a few rebounds and be out of position a few times. Through the first and second periods, he surrendered three goals on the first 21 shots he faced on the night. He didn’t attribute his struggles to nerves, though.

“Not jitters,” he said. “They got one on the power play there off the rebound. Then the second one, I picked up a little bit late.”

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Despite the outcome, Kuemper said that he felt fine in his debut and is ready to move past it while also stressing the need to have a better start going forward.

“Other than [the first two goals], I felt pretty good about my game. Obviously not happy with the result. Always sucks losing the first game of the year, especially the home opener. But yeah, there was a lot of good things from everyone out there. We just got to make sure we’re ready from the start.”

Trevor van Riemsdyk also commented on Kuemper’s performance and said that the defense should be held more accountable than their newest addition in net.

“We have nothing but confidence in him,” van Riemsdyk said. “We hung him out to dry a couple times and he bailed us out. He’ll be good to go. Not even going to think twice about it.”

Washington is right back to work on Thursday as the team heads up north to face the Toronto Maple Leafs.